# Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary

The Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary (内閣官房副長官, Naikaku-kanbō-fuku-chōkan) is an official in the Japanese government who assists the Chief Cabinet Secretary. Since July 1998 there have always been three Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretaries at any given time.

## Role

The Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretaries are customarily divided into two types: those responsible for political affairs (政務担当) and those responsible for administrative affairs (事務担当). Since the Obuchi Cabinet, there have been two Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretaries for political affairs and one for administrative affairs. Prior to that, there were one for each.
The Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretaries for political affairs are members of the National Diet, one from the House of Representatives and one from the House of Councillors. The position is often given to a protégé or close aide to the Prime Minister. It is considered a gateway to success for mid-career Diet members, as those who serve in it have often been given important cabinet positions afterwards. There are five instances of former Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretaries becoming Prime Minister: Noboru Takeshita, Toshiki Kaifu, Yoshirō Mori, Shinzo Abe and Yukio Hatoyama.
The Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary for administrative affairs is the senior bureaucrat in the government. The position is typically filled by someone who has previously served as administrative vice-minister or in a equivalent role. The main function of this position is to coordinate the bureaucracy. They preside over the administrative vice-minister's liaison conference, a sub-cabinet meeting of the senior bureaucrats of each ministry.

## List of officeholders
### Since the Obuchi Cabinet

| Date of appointment | Political affairs (House of Representatives) | Political affairs (House of Councillors) | Administrative affairs | Prime Minister |
| 31 July 1998 | Muneo Suzuki | Mitsuhiro Uesugi | Teijirō Furukawa | Obuchi |
| 5 October 1999 | Fukushiro Nukaga | Sōichirō Matsutani | Teijirō Furukawa | Obuchi |
| 5 April 2000 | Fukushiro Nukaga | Sōichirō Matsutani | Teijirō Furukawa | Mori |
| 4 July 2000 | Shinzo Abe | Kōsei Ueno | Teijirō Furukawa | Mori |
| 26 April 2001 | Shinzo Abe | Kōsei Ueno | Teijirō Furukawa | Koizumi |
| 22 September 2003 | Hiroyuki Hosoda | Masaaki Yamazaki | Masahiro Futahashi | Koizumi |
| 7 May 2004 | Seiken Sugiura | Masaaki Yamazaki | Masahiro Futahashi | Koizumi |
| 31 October 2005 | Jinen Nagase | Seiji Suzuki | Masahiro Futahashi | Koizumi |
| 26 September 2006 | Hakubun Shimomura | Seiji Suzuki | Junzō Matoba | Abe |
| 27 August 2007 | Matsushige Ono | Mitsuhide Iwaki | Junzō Matoba | Abe |
| 26 September 2007 | Matsushige Ono | Mitsuhide Iwaki | Masahiro Futahashi | Fukuda |
| 1 August 2008 | Ryu Shionoya | Mitsuhide Iwaki | Masahiro Futahashi | Fukuda |
| 24 September 2008 | Jun Matsumoto | Yoshitada Konoike | Iwao Uruma | Aso |
| 13 May 2009 | Jun Matsumoto | Katsuhito Asano | Iwao Uruma | Aso |
| 16 September 2009 | Yorihisa Matsuno | Koji Matsui | Kin'ya Takino | Hatoyama |
| 8 June 2010 | Motohisa Furukawa | Tetsuro Fukuyama | Kin'ya Takino | Kan |
| 14 January 2011 | Hirohisa Fujii | Tetsuro Fukuyama | Kin'ya Takino | Kan |
| 17 March 2011 | Yoshito Sengoku | Tetsuro Fukuyama | Kin'ya Takino | Kan |
| 2 September 2011 | Tsuyoshi Saitō | Hiroyuki Nagahama | Makoto Taketoshi | Noda |
| 1 October 2012 | Tsuyoshi Saitō | Hirokazu Shiba | Makoto Taketoshi | Noda |
| 26 December 2012 | Katsunobu Kato | Hiroshige Seko | Kazuhiro Sugita | Abe |
| 7 October 2015 | Koichi Hagiuda | Hiroshige Seko | Kazuhiro Sugita | Abe |
| 13 August 2016 | Koichi Hagiuda | Kotaro Nogami | Kazuhiro Sugita | Abe |
| 3 August 2017 | Yasutoshi Nishimura | Kotaro Nogami | Kazuhiro Sugita | Abe |
| 11 September 2019 | Akihiro Nishimura | Naoki Okada | Kazuhiro Sugita | Abe |
| 16 September 2020 | Manabu Sakai | Naoki Okada | Kazuhiro Sugita | Suga |
| 4 October 2021 | Seiji Kihara | Yoshihiko Isozaki | Shun'ichi Kuryu | Kishida |
| 13 September 2023 | Hideki Murai | Hiroshi Moriya | Shun'ichi Kuryu | Kishida |
| 1 October 2024 | Keiichiro Tachibana | Kazuhiko Aoki | Fumitoshi Satō | Ishiba |